Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel called the law authorizing a tunnel to house Enbridge's controversial Line 5 pipeline "unconstitutional" in a formal opinion released Thursday.
Shortly thereafter, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered the stoppage of the state's work around the pipeline, including the work of the Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority created to oversee the project.
The opinion was Nessel's first as Attorney General. A day after being inaugurated in January, she said in a statement that she would look into Whitmer's questions concerning the Line 5 tunnel.
“There are serious and significant concerns regarding (the legislation authorizing the Line 5 tunnel), which the previous governor and Legislature initiated and passed without the care and caution one would expect for an issue that will have a monumental impact on our state,” Nessel said in the January release.
PA 359, the legislation authorizing the tunnel, allows oversight of the utility tunnel by the Mackinac Bridge Authority. That oversight will be taken over by a newly established Corridor Authority as soon as board members can appointed.
Signed by former Gov. Rick Snyder in 2018's hectic lame-duck session, P.A. 359 allows the Bridge Authority to build, operate, maintain and oversee utility tunnels in water.
Nessel cites a conflict with P.A. 359 and the Title-Object Clause of the Michigan Constitution, which says bills must only pertain to one object, clearly stated in its title. When the body of legislation goes beyond the bounds expressed in the title, it violates the Michigan Constitution.
Transferring responsibility from the Bridge Authority to the Corridor Authority goes against the original intent of the legislation and is therefore unconstitutional, Nessel said.
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